My Dear Readers, I have really caught the bug of domesticity
over the last week or so. If you
have been reading this blog for any length of time, then you know that I am a
huge advocate of do-it-yourself projects. However, I have really put on my homemaker shoes
lately by making a ton of fermented things (which I will likely discuss in
future posts), as well as to start making my very own homemade body care
products.
I have wanted to start making my own body care products
since becoming more and more disheartened by all of the chemicals that are in
commercial products. The truth is
that there are all sorts of “trade secret” ingredients that manufacturers
aren’t even required to put on the labels that consist of who knows what
chemicals. Even the “all natural”
and “organic” products, while generally better than the conventional kind, tend
to be rather costly or it can still be difficult to identify all of the
ingredients that they contain.
I keep hearing about all of the scary ingredients in the
commercial body care products that are carcinogenic or cause X, Y, and Z health
problems, and it just makes you want to take a step back and start making your
own stuff. Just like the
food we eat. I guess that the rule
with these products goes, “If it has any ingredients in it that we don’t
recognize the name of, or in many cases, if we wouldn’t be willing to eat it,
don’t put it on or in your body.”
The skin is actually the largest organ in the body, and it
essentially absorbs whatever we put on it into the bloodstream. Then, whatever compounds we have
absorbed into our body travels around and can get stored in our organs and
other places if they don’t get used or excreted out somehow. This should give us pause to think
about all of the things that we put on our bodies. Knowledge of this fact has transformed my choices concerning
the products that I use, and I try to choose the most natural products as I can
given what I can personally afford (which admittedly isn’t a lot).
I am not a very “girly” gal, and so I prefer the basics when
it comes to the personal care products that I use. I am also not one to sit in front of the mirror every
day primping for hours. While I
don’t want to look like a hairy, disheveled, and stinky monster, I have much
better things to do with my time than to primp my life away. I do, however, believe that beauty
starts from the inside, not just from our souls and what sort of person that we
are, but also from whatever we are eating. If we are eating a healthy diet with lots of
antioxidant-rich foods and other healthy whole foods, we will have much
healthier complexions and bodies, and these foods help to keep our bodies looking
younger. Conversely, if we are
eating poorly, our skin and the rest of our appearance will be affected
negatively. It amazes me how many
people, especially many women, focus so much on buying expensive beauty
treatments and cosmetics, but they often completely overlook what they are
putting into their bodies from the food and the beverages that they are
consuming, which quite often is the basis of beauty (and health) in the first
place. I believe that beauty
really must start from the inside first.
For a moisturizer on my face every morning and evening, I
use unrefined virgin coconut oil, and it works like a dream. While it may seem greasy at first, the
oil quickly gets absorbed into your skin and you will benefit from the many
healthy properties of coconut oil, which include tons of antioxidants and
antimicrobial elements. I have
also recently gotten back into doing oil pulling using coconut oil, which has
seemed to clear up my skin quite a bit.
I recommend the book Oil Pulling
Therapy written by Dr. Bruce Fife if you would like to learn more about
this simple and inexpensive natural health practice.
My First Homemade
Body Care Products
Due to my interest in the healthy properties of coconut oil
and the fact that I always have a steady supply of it my kitchen to use as my
primary cooking oil, I was excited to discover several recipes for making some
of your own body care products using it.
The ones that I have tried so far are for making coconut oil deodorant
and coconut oil lotion bars.
Since
we have plunged into temperatures below freezing over the last week and now
have snow where I live, we have to keep our skin from getting chapped and
dry. Fortunately, coconut oil
works well for this purpose, and I decided to give the lotion bars a try by
using this
recipe.
While the lotion bars are more reminiscent of an ointment in
consistency, and it takes a bit of work to get it spread and absorbed into the
skin, it seems to keep my skin well moisturized. The bars were fairly easy to make: just take equal portions
of both coconut oil and beeswax, mix them together and melt them, and then add
your choice of essential oils. I
poured the hot liquid into a muffin tin (you could use molds or other
containers instead), let them completely cool, and presto, there were lotion
bars! Since I made them myself, I
was able to add whatever essential oils I wanted to. I, of course, started with one of my most favorite scents in
the entire world: lavender. I was excited that I didn’t need to go
out and buy any commercial lotion that day. I am hoping to make some actual homemade lotion soon as
well, but since I didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand to do so, the
lotion bars still saved the day as well as my dry skin.
I also made some coconut oil deodorant using this
recipe. Fortunately, I had all
of the ingredients on hand: coconut oil, baking soda, GMO-free cornstarch (I
prefer GMO-free corn products), optional essential oils (I chose lavender again
on this one), and arrowroot powder (this ingredient will likely sound familiar
to my gluten-free comrades out there, but for those of you who aren’t
gluten-free, you should be able to find some in the gluten-free baking
ingredients area of a natural food store or hopefully your local grocery
store). I did find that I
had to add a little more coconut oil than the original recipe called for to
equal a frosting-like consistency.
My advice would be to add one additional tablespoon of coconut oil at a
time until the mixture reaches your desired consistency.
I wasn’t sure how well this deodorant would actually work,
but so far so good, as it has kept my underarms dry and non-stinky all day
long. I did decide to try this on
a weekend, since I’m not sure how well it would work during a typical workday
during the week. My plan is to try
it out and keep my regular Tom’s of Maine brand deodorant with me just in
case. I had to apply it with my
hands like a lotion instead of using a “stick” like your typical commercial
deodorant. This is now being
stored in a jar in my bathroom cupboard.
Here are some pictures of my body care product making adventures
this weekend. I hope that they are
helpful to you and will encourage you to start making some of your own homemade
body care products as well. They
are natural and healthy alternatives, easy to make, and you will be able to
identify all of the ingredients that you are putting on your body. Score!
Making the Lotion
Bars
Equal portions of coconut oil and beeswax beads. I started out adding ¼ cup at a time of each, and added an additional ¼-1/2 cup of each to increase the total volume. |
Mixing and melting the beeswax and the coconut oil in a pot
of boiling water within a pint size mason jar.
|
I added a few drops of lavender oil and pure vanilla extract to the hot liquid. |
After pouring the hot liquid into a muffin tin.
|
The cooled lotion bars.
|
All finished!
|
Making the Deodorant
All of the ingredients…
|
Whisking together all of the dry ingredients.
|
After adding the initial 1/3 cup coconut oil and 5-10 drops of lavender essential oil. I found that it still needed a little additional coconut oil to achieve my desired consistency. |
After adding 1-2 tablespoons more coconut oil. This resembled the consistency of a
thick frosting.
|
The finished deodorant in a glass jar.
|
My homemade lavender deodorant on my bathroom cabinet shelf!
|
Oh wow! That a fabulous.. you make your body products on your own! We prefer to Buy Body Care Products Online most of time... Well loved you work.. keep it up. all the best ... Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tristan! My goal is to eventually make almost all of my own body care products myself. This is cheaper than commercial products, I know exactly what is in them, and I can make them to my own preferences. I find that making these things is pretty empowering- no more worrying about what toxic waste is in the things that I use for my body. My favorite so far is the calendula lavender lotion that I wrote about on 1/20/2015. Check it out!
DeleteI encourage you to try making some of these things yourself. You may never go back to commercial products again.